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Marriage Equality in Ireland

Satisfactory Essays

There is an on-going debate on the recognition of same-sex couples in Republic of Ireland. The issue is marriage equality in Ireland and how maintaining civil partnership is discrimination. There are many advocates of same-sex marriage and I choose to examine the Marriage Equality campaign. It launched in 2008 and followed the gay movement since then. It is a national, non-profit, advocacy organisation whose aim is “to achieve equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Ireland through the extension of civil marriage rights to same-sex couples”. It believes that same-sex couples have the right to express who they are, including who they want to marry regardless of sexual orientation. In light of this, they should not be inhibited from enjoying the same rights heterosexual couples possess. It also believes that the laws provided in civil partnerships are a step forward to civil marriage but maintaining it is discriminatory. This is because civil partnerships do not grant all of the rights and laws in civil marriage. This relates back to the concept of society and identity, because the policy change is the need of the Irish community to provide total equality and same-sex couples are not recognised equally by law in the social identity of Ireland.

The people who are involved in the Marriage Equality campaign felt like it was their responsibility to spread the message of the campaign to the Irish community. This is because showing their support and

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